from the take-a-stand dept

On November 16th, the House of Representatives will be holding hearings on SOPA, its bill to put in place all sorts of restrictions and regulations on the internet, at the behest of the big Hollywood studios, who have failed to adapt. The bill is nothing short of an attempt to censor the internet, creating -- for the first time ever -- the ability for the US government to flat out censor entire websites. The hearings on the 16th are completely stacked in favor of the bill. The sponsors of the bill can't even stand to have a fair hearing and listen to those who are worried about the unintended consequences of the bill.

That's why a bunch of websites have teamed up to declare November 16th: American Censorship Day. If you run a website, please sign up to participate, to help educate your users to the problems associated with the bill, and to urge them to express their concerns to Congress. Don't let Congress build the Great Firewall of America while you sat back and did nothing.

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There won't be any winners, the legacy companies will still die off, it'll just take a little bit longer.

Would be funny though if Sony uses SOPA to have Universal shut down over copyright infringement... I'm pretty sure they could make something up, not like they actually need evdience, or a court, or judge or even a jury.

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It's a good thing I've posted this blog to my Facebook account. Nothing like using the Internet to get the word out.
I hope Mike lets us all know which politician voted for this. Then I can spam that list to my Facebook account too. Need to let the people know who voted for this.

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At least Wyden can stop the bills from getting through the senate for a while. as long as he can do that we got a chance. i would not be surprised if the whole idea of unanimous consent was designed for situations when a senator feels that the other side is so heavily bribed that they will no longer see reason. and yes i believe paying massive campaign contributions to congressmen so they will vote on your side is the same thing as offering them a bribe. it is nice that he still has a few more years

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I'd like to think that at least some of the politicians in the US review this blog. I want them to know that what they do is important and that "We the people" are going to hold them accountable in some way.
While I personally don't have the influence that the AA groups do, I do vote and I do get my friends and family involved.
I want content creators to get their $. I really do.
I just am not willing to give up on due process and freedom of speech (Because these things make our country somewhat unique.) to bow before these overlord wannabes.

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This will only work if big companies like Google & Youtube & Facebook & Ebay etc all agree to it, since they're such massive and popular sites that people could hardly miss it if they did it for a day. Smaller sites unfortunately don't really have the muscle to force this kind of stuff into the news and get the national attention needed to make a point and stop SOPA.

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This will only work if big companies like Google & Youtube & Facebook & Ebay etc all agree to it, since they're such massive and popular sites that people could hardly miss it if they did it for a day. Smaller sites unfortunately don't really have the muscle to force this kind of stuff into the news and get the national attention needed to make a point and stop SOPA.

You may want to consider whether those companies are willing to spend all of their political capital in an uncertain effort to beat this back. It may come as a shock for you to learn that this may not be the single biggest issue in the lives of these companies. Most it won't affect them as this bill targets foreign sites. The domestic component of SOPA isn't worrisome to them at all.

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I have an idea for Google for November 16th:

G_____

..............................
|............................|

Don't know how the character graphics will look in your browser, but I t____ the old s_____ blanking out of key w____ applied to g_____ would get the m______ across b_________. Not only is it censorship, it also fails to prevent people from getting the information that the law would try to suppress.

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Pretty much. People won't care until YouTube shuts down and they can't get their daily intake of cat videos. Then they'll look like a deer in headlights and wonder "How could anyone have foreseen this??"

Meanwhile, web-wide TRACKING is a far worse threat.

Before I can even /see/ the proposed letter to be sent to Congress, this "pro-freedom" site puts up a form that requires effectively ID-ing oneself, AND promises to annoy you in future:
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(fields name): Address, City, State, Zip Code

"Fight for the Future will contact you about related campaigns, but we won’t share your email with anyone."
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Anyone here stupid enough to give that away? It's also indicative that front page has a link to "GeoIP service" (taking the link gets to a database for fee), so if you gave them the above, you've helped commercial enterprises to track and target you.

So it's MONETIZING MIKE! Managed to "monetize" your opposition to SOPA, have you? What a SHAM you are.

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"I love how you pretend that the only possible way people could be opposed to this is if they were being paid to be opposed to it."

Mike, how often am I labelled an "industry shill" or "paid shill" on this site? Come on, it's the easiest way to try to tar and feather someone with an opinion you don't agree with. You don't argue points, you just call them a shill and repeat it every time they make a point, valid or not.

However, the AC does bring up a valid point: Google does appear to be putting a fair bit of money into different organizations, some openly and some much more quietly. The chance of a sock puppet situation is very high.

Google has a ton of cash, and the ability to both spend it to protect it's interests and aims to be the middleman of everything, and also having the money to finance groups and lure key people to their side. Staff from EFF has ended up in very high positions at Google, and there has always been a good relationship. Does Google help finance them?

In the end, "American Censorship Day" appears to be a bit of astroturfing the same small number of groups that keep repeating the same thing over and over again. Heck Mike, you are actually quoted on the site. Perhaps you want to be a little more direct about your involvement and personal support for the project - did you have a hand in creating it?

Re: Meanwhile, web-wide TRACKING is a far worse threat.

this "pro-freedom" site puts up a form that requires effectively ID-ing oneself

Unlike Big Content (who you shill for constantly), the opposition apparently is trying to get support from real people, and not just astroturfing through sock puppets with form letters. No wonder you have a problem with it.

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While not in full agreement with this (or its breathless tone) I do note with much displeasure that the code this site's offering refers people to Facebook...which of course I have permanently blacklisted.

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If this were about enforcing one's copyright, you'd have a point. The problem we have -- which so many of you fail to acknowledge -- is that the bill is much broader than that and will stifle all sorts of non-infringing speech.

Sign the Petition 2 Stop Censorship

I wonder if the next step after SOPA might be to require a government license to use a VPN, like laws in Oman and Pakistan, even to access you office network from home.

As the government gets an order to block access to one VPN, more will show up in their place, or maybe even the shut down one will re-appear under a new name.

You watch, the government will be playing whack-a-mole trying to stop people from using VPNs to bypass the blacklist, which mayh well result in laws, like those in Pakistan and Oman, requiring a government license to use a VPN, to access your office network from home.

americancensorship.org is down

Isn't censorship illegal, because it is against the first amendment? "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." And if they would like to argue prior restraint, meaning the few vague restrictions on speech, they still don't make internet censorship legal. Someone posting something on the internet is not equivalent to yelling "Fire!" in a movie theater. This is all just stupid... And by the way, if the supreme court doesn't deem this unconstitutional, we all have the right to abolish this government and put better people into office. Just saying.

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The first amendment doesn't mention the word censor unfortunately, so it would have to be argued that this is a breach of free speech and I believe they're already lining up the 'only free speech limited is that of illegal activity' stance, hopefully it can argued successfully against.

I see that these congressmen fell asleep in history class when talking about the 1920s in school, huh. Go let them pass this fuckin' bill and watch as they fried when Occupy Wall Street take a turn for violence- in fact, if I'm old enough, I might even join those guys.